Decoder with Nilay Patel

"All chaos and panic": Nilay answers your burning Decoder questions

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone! Decoder senior producers Kate Cox and Nick Statt here. We’ve had a big year, including nearly 100 episodes, a new YouTube channel, an ...

Stack Overflow users don't trust AI. They're using it anyway

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandresekar was last on the show in 2022 — just one month before ChatGPT launched and upended literally everything for...

Sen. Ed Markey wants media companies to fight for the First Amendment

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and I agree it seems like democracy is on the line right now, especially around the First Amendment and the increasing pr...

Square's product chief on the death of the penny and the future of money

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Willem Avé, who’s the head of product at Square. You know Square — it was started by billionaire Jack Dorsey of Twitter...

The tiny team trying to keep AI from destroying everything

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field about some of the people responsible for studying AI and deciding in what ways it migh...

Why IBM CEO Arvind Krishna is still hiring humans in the AI era

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

IBM was instrumental to the entire 20th century of computing — but it's a lot harder for most of us to see what it's been up to during this century....

What the climate story gets wrong

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone, it's Nilay. It’s been great being back in the Decoder chair this fall, and we’ve got a bunch of great episodes coming up to round ou...

The DoorDash Problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Okay, let’s talk about AI and what I’ve been calling the “DoorDash problem.” This is about to define the next battle in AI, and it might compl...

Ring's Jamie Siminoff thinks AI can reduce crime

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jamie Simonoff, founder of Ring, won't let me call him the CEO. He says his title is and always has been 'chief inventor.' His mission with Ring is to...

The company at the heart of the AI bubble

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

So a lot of people think AI is a bubble. So we sent Verge senior reporter Liz Lopatto out to report on the AI bubble  — whether it's real, how it m...

Sir Tim Berners-Lee doesn’t think AI will destroy the web

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with a very special guest: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Tim is a legend in the history of the interne...

How AI is fueling an existential crisis in education

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We keep hearing over and over that generative AI is causing massive problems in education, both in K-12 schools and at the college level. Lots of peop...

Lyft CEO David Risher on paying drivers more and the shift to robotaxis

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David Risher was on Lyft's board for years, but only stepped in as CEO in 2023, to help turn the company around. He's done pretty well so far, but the...

How Silicon Valley enshittified the internet

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Sarah Jeong, features editor at The Verge. I’m standing in for Nilay for one final Thursday episode here as he settles back into full-time ...

LexisNexis CEO says the AI law era is already here

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

LexisNexis is one of the most important companies in the entire legal system. For ages it's been where you went to look up case law and do legal resea...

Why GM will give you Gemini — but not CarPlay

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s guests are General Motors CEO Mary Barra and new GM Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson. There’s a lot of big news the company just an...

Zocdoc CEO: "Dr. Google is going to be replaced by Dr. AI"

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone, it’s Nilay. I’m back from parental leave, and I’m really excited to jump back into Decoder. Today’s episode is a special one: I’...

The EV tax credit is dead. What now?

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Jake Kastrenakes, executive editor at The Verge. I’m filling in for Nilay here while he settles back into full-time hosting duties. We’ve ...

Announcing an ad-free Decoder feed for Verge subscribers

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you're a paid subscriber to the Verge, there's great news: you can now listen to Decoder, Version History, and The Vergecast completely ad-free. Ju...

The AI industry is at a major crossroads

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Hayden Field, senior AI reporter at The Verge and your Thursday episode guest host. It’s been a very big news week in AI, and a lot of it ha...

Rivian CEO: 'We're really convicted' about skipping Carplay

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I’m Joanna Stern, the senior personal tech columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and this is my final Decoder episode filling in for Nilay while he’...

The good, bad, and future of AI agents

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Hayden Field, senior AI reporter at The Verge and your Thursday episode guest host. Today, I’m talking with David Hershey, who leads the app...

Ford CEO Jim Farley on China, tariffs, and the quest for a $30,000 EV

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal. I’m the last Monday guest host filling in for Nilay here on D...

How AI safety took a backseat to military money

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Hayden Field, senior AI reporter at The Verge — and your Thursday episode guest host. I have another couple of shows for you while Nilay is ...

Dropout CEO Sam Reich on business, comedy, and keeping culture weird

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Guest host Hank Green talks with his friend Dropout CEO Sam Reich about keeping a business simple, trying to run a company the “right way,” and wh...

How chatbots — and their makers — are enabling AI psychosis

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field and New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill discuss the significant mental health impact AI chatbots, such as ChatG...

How brands and creators are fighting for your attention — and your money

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Hank Green, the cofounder of Complexly. I’m back for my second guest hosting spot here on Decoder while Nilay is out on parental leave. Toda...

Sierra CEO Bret Taylor on why the AI bubble feels like the dotcom boom

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath. For my final episode as your Thursday episode guest host, I recently sat down with Bret Taylor, the CEO of AI startup Sierra and t...

Sal Khan is hopeful that AI won't destroy education

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Hank Green, cofounder of Complexly. You might remember last year when I turned the tables on Nilay and interviewed him on his own show. That w...

The quest to keep OpenAI honest

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being one of the most valuable companies in the world, OpenAI is still technically a nonprofit. That’s what set the stage for the dramatic b...

Rewind: Bookshop CEO's crusade to save books from Amazon

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hello, and welcome to Decoder! This is Senior Producer Nick Statt. We’re on a small break for the end of summer, and, sadly, Nilay will still be out...

Is ChatGPT killing higher education?

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hello! Decoder senior producer Kate Cox here. I’m afraid I’m still not Nilay, but I hope you’ve been enjoying our series of guest hosts this sum...

Amazon is betting on agents to win the AI race

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host and deputy editor at The Verge. One of the biggest topics in AI these days is agents — the idea...

How the head of Obsidian went from superfan to CEO

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Obsidian is a note-taking and productivity app that occupies the same "second brain" space as competitors like Notion — but in a lot of ways, it's a...

ChatGPT chief Nick Turley doesn't want you too attached to AI

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host and deputy editor at The Verge. Today, I’m talking to a very special guest: Nick Turley, OpenAI...

Notion's CEO wants you to demand better from your tools

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Casey Newton, founder and editor of Platformer and cohost of the Hard Fork podcast. This is the second episode of my productivity-focused Deco...

GitHub's CEO says AI coding is ‘here to stay’

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath, deputy editor at The Verge. My guest today is GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke. In many ways, GitHub Copilot set off the current AI coding...

Why tech is racing to adopt AI coding

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Casey Newton, founder and editor of the Platformer newsletter and cohost of the Hard Fork podcast. I’ll be guest hosting the next few episod...

Why AI researchers are getting paid like NBA All-Stars

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host and deputy editor at The Verge. Today I'm joined by Hayden Field, The Verge’s new senior AI rep...

Can we ever trust an AI lawyer?

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is CNBC journalist Jon Fortt. This is the last episode I’ll be guest-hosting for Nilay while he’s out on parental leave. My guest today is Ri...

We are not ready for better deepfakes

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host. Today I'm talking with Gaurav Misra, the CEO of Captions. You may not have heard of Captions yet...

Why tech billionaires want a ‘corporate dictatorship’

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Jon Fortt, CNBC journalist. I’m guest-hosting for a couple more episodes of Decoder this summer while Nilay is out on parental leave. Today,...

Perplexity CEO on why the browser is AI's killer app

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath, deputy editor at The Verge. Nilay’s out on parental leave for the next few months, so I’ll be stepping in to host our Thursday...

How decision making will change when AI answers are cheap and (too) easy

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Jon Fortt, CNBC journalist, co-host of Closing Bell Overtime, and creator and host of the Fortt Knox podcast. I’m stepping in to guest host ...

Inside the AI startup frenzy: ‘Everyone’s pivoting, then pivoting again’

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of Decoder, Ellis Hamburger — former journalist at The Verge, early Snap employee, and founder of the brand strategy studio Meaning ...

How SharkNinja took over the home

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s summertime, which means it’s time for our annual grilling episode. In years past we’ve talked to the leaders of Big Green Egg, Traeger, and...

Why Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg went to war over WordPress

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of Automattic and the public face of WordPress. Last year, Matt essentially went to war,...

Hinge CEO Justin McLeod says dating AI chatbots is 'playing with fire'

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod. Hinge is one of the biggest dating apps in the United States — it’s rivaled only by...

Monopoly isn’t a game (with Lina Khan)

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone, it’s Nilay. Decoder is on a short summer break right now, but we’ll be back starting June 23 with new episodes, and we’re very exc...

Taskrabbit CEO Ania Smith isn’t afraid of AI robots replacing human labor

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Taskrabbit CEO Ania Smith. Taskrabbit is an interesting company; it’s known best for being a platform for hiring people to...

Why Runway CEO Cris Valenzuela thinks AI filmmaking is the future

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Runway CEO and co-founder Cris Valenzuela. This one’s special: Cris and I were live at an event in New York City last mont...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wants to build the everything app

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. This is Brian’s fourth time on the show, and he’s one of my favorite guests because he’s so c...

How private equity kills companies and communities

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with journalist Megan Greenwell about her new book Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. It comes out ...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the next phase of AI

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In what's become a bit of a Decoder tradition, I spoke with Google CEO Sundar Pichai in person after I/O. The conference this year was all about AI, p...

Why Uber's CEO is okay with reinventing the bus

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. We recorded this conversation on the same day Uber announced a big set of product updates, inclu...

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on how AI can save the web, not destroy it

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Kevin Scott, the chief technology officer of Microsoft, and one of the company’s AI leaders. Kevin is one of my favorite r...

Workday's new product head hopes he can make you like Workday

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Gerrit Kazmaier, the brand-new president of product and technology at Workday. Gerrit’s new on the job, maybe a little bit...

Did Apple get too big for its own good?

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We’re doing something a little different today — I asked my friend John Gruber of Daring Fireball to come on the show and talk about the future of...

Reuters is ready to stand up for the press — and embrace AI

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Paul Bascobert, who is the president of Reuters, as part of a special Thursday series we’re running this month to explore ...

NYT publisher AG Sulzberger on Trump, OpenAI, and the economy

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone, it’s Nilay. We’re off today, but we’ll be back Thursday, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we have an excellent episode from Busines...

What Trump has broken in 100 days

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A lot has happened in the first 100 days of Trump's second term. It’s nearly too much to keep up with, really, but we're going to try. Verge policy ...

Decoder Live: Fired FTC commissioners fight back

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A few days ago, I hosted a panel with FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya at the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, DC. We re...

The case for breaking up Google has never been stronger

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re talking about the very real possibility that Google might be broken up by the United States government. And to do that, I’m talking to...

Verizon’s consumer chief: Net neutrality ‘went literally nowhere’

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As CEO of Verizon's consumer division, Sowmyanarayan Sampath oversees the biggest part of the company, which does business with roughly a third of the...

How Trump’s tariffs actually work on the ground

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One of the ways I’ve been trying to sort out the chaos of tariffs and trade wars is by talking to the people behind the software that makes the glob...

Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood's Vlad Tenev is betting not

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Vlad Tenev, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, which started as a way to open up stock trading. But the company’s ambiti...

Why DOGE is killing the agency that stops banks from ripping you off

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rohit Chopra was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head until the end of January, when President Donald Trump fired him and Elon Musk’s DOGE ...

UiPath CEO Daniel Dines on AI agents replacing our jobs

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Daniel Dines, the co-founder and once again the CEO of UiPath, a software company that specializes in something called robot...

What AI anime memes tell us about the future of art and humanity

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re diving head first into the AI art debate, which to be honest, is an absolute mess. If you’ve been on the internet this past week, you...

How Unity CEO Matt Bromberg stopped the ‘war’ against its customers

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Unity is one of those hidden in plain sight companies we love here on Decoder, and CEO Matt Bromberg is in many ways the perfect Decoder guest. He's b...

Capitalism vs. the bird flu

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re talking about bird flu, but in a pretty Decoder way. Science journalist Lauren Leffer, who recently wrote a piece for The Verge about bi...

Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava on why push-button AI is “insulting” to musicians

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Kakul Srivastava, CEO of music creation platform Splice, which is one of the biggest marketplaces around for loops and sampl...

The movement to take down Tesla

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we're talking about the Tesla Takedown protest movement, which has emerged as a way for people to express how deeply unhappy they are with Elon ...

How Trump's tariff chaos is already changing global trade

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I'm talking to Evan Smith, who started Altana in 2019 because he predicted the first wave of globalized manufacturing and trade would end, and that co...

Why the Take It Down Act is a not a law, but a weapon

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking to Verge policy editor Adi Robertson about a bill called the Take It Down Act, which is one in a long line of bills that would ma...

Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour on AI, press freedom, and the future of news

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Almar Latour is the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and also CEO of its parent company, Dow Jones — itself a part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp...

Flying is still safe, for now — but the FAA isn’t

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

So today I’m talking to Andy Hawkins, The Verge’s transportation editor, about what’s going on in the skies. Andy just edited a big piece for us...

Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Panos Panay is in charge of devices and services at Amazon — that's everything from Alexa and Kindle to Ring, Eero, and even the Project Kuiper sate...

Elon Musk's polarizing ascent in the MAGA movement

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Alex Heath, deputy editor of The Verge. I’m guest hosting today’s episode while Nilay is still away for a much-needed vacation. He’ll be...

Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer is betting on the human touch — and AI

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vimeo started many years ago as something of an artsier, more creative competitor to YouTube. Its last CEO, Anjali Sud, took the company through a pre...

Why gaming never had its Netflix moment

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is David Pierce, editor-at-large at The Verge. Nilay is off this week for a much-deserved break. So I’m filling in for him, and the Decoder tea...

The FCC is a now a weapon in Trump’s war on free speech

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The First Amendment, protecting free speech and free media, is a pillar of US law. It is, famously, the first one. We don’t usually tolerate governm...

Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Senator Ron Wyden, a democrat and the senior senator from Oregon. He’s been in the Senate for almost 30 years, which makes...

Elon Musk's presidency is just getting started

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re discussing a very big problem with extremely far-reaching consequences: Do we still have a functional federal government here in the Un...

Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter's crusade to save books from Amazon

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Andy Hunter is the CEO of Bookshop.org, a website he launched in 2020 that lets local bookshops sell all over the country. He always meant it to compe...

DeepSeek, Stargate, and the new AI arms race

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re talking about DeepSeek, and how the open source AI model built by a Chinese startup has completely upended the conventional wisdom arou...

How Ciena keeps the internet online, with CEO Gary Smith

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Gary Smith, CEO of the networking company Ciena. You probably aren’t familiar with Ciena — the company isn’t really a ...

How Meta's MAGA heel turn is a play for global power

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a messy couple of weeks for big tech companies as the second Trump administration kicks off an unprecedented era of how we think about who...

Why CEO Matt Garman is willing to bet AWS on AI

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Matt Garman, the CEO of Amazon Web Services. Matt took over as CEO last June — you might recall that we had his predecesso...

Studying online bad behavior was hard. It's going to get harder in Trump 2.0

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hello, Nilay here. We’re still on winter break; we’ll be back with brand-new Decoder interviews next week, and with our Thursday shows later this ...

Answering your biggest Decoder questions

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Decoder team turns the tables on Nilay and makes him answer your burning listener questions in our end-of-year wrap up special. We also reflect on...

Tech antitrust is about to get really weird

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re talking about antitrust policy and tech, which is at a particularly weird moment as we enter the second Trump administration. A lot of t...

Arm CEO Rene Haas on the AI chip race, Intel, and what Trump means for tech

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Heath, Deputy Editor at The Verge, guest hosts this episode of Decoder featuring a live interview with Arm CEO Rene Haas about the future of AI a...

Platforms need the news, but they're killing it

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve been talking a lot this year about the changing internet, and what it’s doing to the media ecosystem — particularly journalism, which has ...

Why every company wants a podcast now

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There’s something strange happening these days in the podcast world — in particular, the way companies that deal in money have been using podcasti...

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman says conversational AI is the next web browser

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I’m talking with Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI. Mustafa is a fascinating character in the world of AI — he’s been in and out ...

AI is a money pit — here’s why investors don’t mind

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

AI investment is massive, but AI profits are not — and yet investors seem confident massive AI fundraising will one day translate into sizable AI p...

Rewind: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on the future of federated social media

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bluesky has really taken off since the election, and since the Decoder team took some time off for Thanksgiving break, we felt it was a great time to ...

GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani on the enduring power of the website

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I spoke with GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani live on stage last week at an event hosted by Alix Partners in Palo Alto. GoDaddy is one of those companies that...

Remix: Google Zero is here — now what?

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For nearly 20 years now, the web has been Google’s platform; we’ve all just lived on it. Google is constantly changing that platform — it launch...